Verizon’s locked bootloader on their Galaxy S III hasn’t stopped development at all to this point. Two unofficial ports of AOKP and CyanogenMod 10 popped up, with each either being as close to fully working as can be or with a couple of minor bugs that are currently being worked on.

AOKP Milestone 6 appears to be ready for release and a daily driver without any known bugs so far. CM10 is currently still being referred to as an “alpha”, however, data and all the other most important core features are working. You may just want to look into either one of these, especially CM10 as they always do a outstanding job and go beyond the call of duty.

In yet another twist involving Verizon’s version of the Samsung Galaxy S III, contrary to our earlier report, Verizon will not provide a software update to unlock the encrypted bootloader. Several users obtained information from Verizon and Samsung customer service reps indicating the Galaxy S III would be unlocked “soon.” The misunderstanding appears to stem from information regarding an update from Verizon to unlock GSM roaming on the S III, not an update to unlock the bootloader.

For now, users interested in a Verizon Galaxy S III are back to looking at the Developer Edition to be made available through Samsung if they want to avoid the locked bootloader. The other option is to wait to see whether the bootloader bounty produces any results.

Motorola confirmed tonight, in a series of tweets, that the Atrix HD will indeed have a locked and signed bootloader. This means that altering the kernel on the Atrix HD will not be possible, limiting the customization possibilities of the phone. In other words, no custom ROMs. The phone, however, should still be rootable.

It’s not the end of the world, though, since Moto also tweeted the following:

“…our goal is still to provide a way to unlock the bootloaders on our devices to those who wish to do so, more details to come.“

So it seems that although the Atrix HD will launch with a locked bootloader, an unlock method may be coming in the hopefully not-too-distant future.

When we told you that Verizon was keeping their Galaxy S III tightly locked up, many folks were upset, considering the other carriers have user-onlockable bootloaders on their S III’s. Well fret no more, young hackers, for Samsung has just announced that they will be offering a developer edition S III that works on Verizon.

This hacker-friendly version will be sold directly from Samsung’s developer portal (developer.samsung.com) for $599. It’s unfortunate Verizon won’t sell it directly themselves since it won’t be subsidized, so if you want this phone for $199, you’re out of luck. But if you’re willing to spend the bucks or don’t want to be on-contract anyway, Samsung’s offer should be music to your ears. Of course, many of you who already purchased the Verizon S III are probably a little miffed. Time for a return?

All the usual warnings apply… unlocking, modding, flashing, etc. is all done at your own risk. Screw something up and you’ve got a very pretty and expensive brick. But we know you’ll be careful.

Samsung Updates has released the official stock firmware for the Verizon version of Samsung‘s flagship Galaxy S III smartphone. This is great news for ROM modders, hackers, and devs since it now offers the safety net of being able to always get back to stock should things go wrong.

This could lead to great new ROMs being cooked up for the S III, but Verizon users have another barrier to get through first. The bootloader on the Verizon S III appears to be locked, meaning no easy hacking or flashing of unsigned images, and no one has been able to unlock or root it yet. Verizon is known for keeping their phones locked down, with the exception of Google’s Galaxy Nexus, and it’s unlikely they would change their policies for the S III. Hope is not lost, however, since devs have been known to find loopholes in the past. As more S III’s hit the streets, the chances get better that someone will find a way to crack this beast. Let’s keep our fingers crossed.

Still, the stock firmware is greatly appreciated and a good first step on the road to root.

For those of you that are still waiting for your Transformer Prime to ship you may be a little more reluctant on signing for your package when it arrives. Folks and users who were able to successfully get their hands on this fancy new Tegra 3, quad-core device are starting to report issues pertaining to the device’s GPS. Asus’ official take is for you to turn on WiFi for extra location assistance, however a few folks smell what could be a coverup as Asus pulled previous mention of a GPS feature on the tablet from their official site. While the Prime was updated to fix some bugs, those customer complaints weren’t addressed and there is no telling when they will be. This is interesting news considering the WiFi issues it was rumored to have that also the the supposed reason the tablet was rumored to be delayed. Read more

For those of you who are planning on buying the Droid Razr, we have some good news for you. Unfortunately good news is usually accompanied by the bad.

Motorola has decided to make the device’s bootloader either locked or unlocked, leaving it up to the carrier to decide. The European market will be getting the unlocked version known as the Motorola Razr. Verizon on the other hand unfortunately decided to keep the U.S. variant, the Droid Razr, on lock-down.

If you were hoping to get the Razr with an unlocked bootloader you will have to import one from another market or wait for the dev community to find a way to port the bootloader over from the international version. Most likely this will happen since it will be the device of choice for many developers and should only be a matter of time before the Droid Razr sees some custom ROMs, so keep the faith my friends.

If this is a deal-breaker for you, and you would rather import the international version, let us know in the comments below.

Yep, you read it right: Just announced via Facebook and tweeted in follow-up, HTC will no longer be locking the bootloaders on their phones. Peter Chou, CEO of HTC, made the following statement:

‎”There has been overwhelmingly customer feedback that people want access to open bootloaders on HTC phones. I want you to know that we’ve listened. Today, I’m confirming we will no longer be locking the bootloaders on our devices. Thanks for your passion, support and patience.”

Motorola has been locking bootloaders for a while now and a lot of consumers have been on their case about it. Recently Australian Atrix owner, Irwin Proud made a Groubal page to get the attention of Motorola. There are now over 8800 signatures.

In response to this, Motorola made the following statement:

“In terms of your question – we completely understand the operator requirement for security to the end user, and as well, want to support the developer communities desire to use these products as a development platform. It is our intention to enable the unlockable/relockable bootloader currently found on Motorola XOOM across our portfolio of devices starting in late 2011, where carriers and operators will allow it.”

“working closely with our partners to offer a bootloader solution that will enable developers to use our devices as a development platform.”

This will all be very interesting because which carriers will go for this? Motorola has been very tight with Verizon Wireless, and it remains to be seen if they would allow unlocked phones. Is Motorola going to play the blame game with the carriers?

It looks like a new trend is beginning with HTC. First it was the Thunderbolt and now it looks like the Incredible S has a signed bootloader and recovery image. This means you will not be able to install custom ROMS unless someone discovers a viable workaround.

If you are somehow able to flash a custom recovery to your phone, HTC’s signature check will kick in. If the signature check sees anything other then the stock HTC key, you will not be allowed to access recovery, which means you cannot flash custom ROMS.

This lockdown is something new at HTC so the androidpolice contacted HTC at CTIA. They were told it was from carrier pressure. If the Incredible S is an unlocked GSM device, how could a carrier cause this? It sounds like they could be fed up with warranty claims of bricked phones from failed mods. Motorola adopted this same strategy last year. I had heard that there were a lot of claims for bricked Droids and that was most likely the cause for their change of heart. Either way, it sounds like this will be the norm for HTC moving forward.